Off-highway trucks, wheel loaders, excavators and other types of equipment are often called upon to perform repetitive segments or repetitive applications that include a sequence of segments. Methods for monitoring the performance such equipment and equipment operator performance currently exist and are important as management is provided with information about the equipment productivity, operator productivity, application efficiency and energy consumption.
Some of these monitoring methods utilize an approach in which operating parameters are monitored. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,955,706 measures lift cylinder pressure, lift cylinder displacement, tilt cylinder displacement, the direction of travel and other parameters to determine which segments of an application or work cycle the machine is undertaking. Individual segments and the overall application or cycle are timed. Similar monitoring is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,895 where sensed data is used to determine the application being performed and to monitor productivity.
It may also be desirable or necessary to monitor the performance of equipment operators in addition to or instead of the equipment itself. The need to monitor operator performance may be for managerial purposes to ensure that operators are complying with a minimum standard of performance and to help identify areas of potential operator improvement. Monitoring operator performance may also be desired by operators to provide the operator with an indication of their own performance in comparison with other operators and to demonstrate their level of competence to management.
One field in which performance monitoring is particularly effective is the operation of wheel loaders and excavators. Wheel loaders and excavators are expensive equipment. To ensure that the value of a wheel loader or excavator is being fully realized, it is important that an operator is operating the equipment efficiently. There are, however, many factors that need to be measured and considered to enable fair and useful comparisons to be made between different operators, between different pieces of equipment, between present and previous performances and between different operating conditions.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system and/or method capable of fairly evaluating an operator and a piece of equipment. Furthermore, it is desirable that performance-monitoring information is displayed in the cab and promptly made available to management and equipment operators alike of current performance-monitoring information.